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It_really_is_only_early_days_in_the_Internet_Gold_Rush
| It really is only early days in the Internet Gold Rush....
Copyright 2005 Richard Grady
One of the questions that I am getting more and more used to
hearing lately is:
'Is it too late for me to start an online business? Have I
missed the boat and have all of the best opportunities been and
gone?'
My reply is always along the lines of, 'Absolutely not - there
is still a wealth of opportunity online and even if you start
your online business tomorrow, you are still well ahead of the
majority of people'.
I genuinely believe that this is the case but I know that many
people do feel that they may have missed the boat and that there
is nothing more that can be done online that isn't already being
done by someone else. If you are one of those people, read on....
I attended a corporate function last week - non Internet related
- and had the chance to talk with a large number of UK business
men and women. These people ranged from people running their own
'one man band' type business right up to the owners of
large-scale operations employing hundreds of staff and turning
over millions of pounds each year. Several of the attendees were
entrepreneurs that had built up and sold companies worth, quite
literally, tens of millions. Overall, a very wide spread of
experience, success and ability but the one thing that tied
everyone together was that they were all running a business of
one kind or another.
Now, as you would expect, when meeting with new people for the
first time (and particularly in a situation such as the one
above), one of the main topics of conversation was what everyone
did for a living. As I have indicated in previous newsletters,
this is a question that I really dislike being asked as I find
it so hard to explain.
Needless to say though, I found myself having to do exactly that
to numerous people, all of whom looked at me with a blank
expression as I tried to tell them, in simple terms, how I
generate an income from nothing more than a PC and the Internet.
This is nothing new and I am well used to it by now (in fact I
am beginning to think that it would be easier just to say I work
in finance as I once did!) but what amazed me most was that not
one of the people I spoke to had any clue about what I was
talking about.
Despite being among a group of what I would consider to be a
fair representation of the UK business community, not one of
them had any real idea about how to use the Internet to increase
their business.
Of course, many of the people I spoke to had websites but ALL of
them told me that the only real purpose their website served was
to provide a small amount of information about their business
and their contact details!
None of them allowed customers to order from their website
(although most of the businesses in question would suit this
method of sales)....
None of them were collecting email addresses from visitors with
the aim of carrying out follow-up marketing (although this would
be appropriate for all of the businesses in question)....
None of the businesses were using email in any way as a form of
marketing, despite the obvious cost advantages over the postal
service...
I could go on but I think you get the point.
On the flipside, every single one of the people that I spoke to
had used the Internet to purchase goods! I find this absolutely
amazing.
Now of course, the people that I spoke to are in a slightly
different situation to many online entrepreneurs in that they
already run successful offline businesses. However, if this is a
fair representation of how entrepreneurs view the Internet in
terms of a business tool, it stands to reason that the 'ordinary
man in the street' will be even less likely to see the Internet
as something that he can use to earn a full or part time income.
The entrepreneurs I spoke to were genuinely surprised that it
was possible to earn a full time income online, they were even
more surprised when I gave them an indication of how much it is
possible to earn. I am sure that a couple of them almost fell
over when I then told them that the day to day maintenance of
many online businesses takes just an hour or so per day since
software can be used to handle so much of the workload!
I therefore reiterate the point that I made at the start of this
newsletter - the Internet Gold rush is surely only just
beginning and the very fact that you are reading this article
puts you way ahead of the vast majority of the rest of the
World. Don't sit there wondering whether it is too late - get
started on your online business today.
And if you were one of the entrepreneurs that I spoke to last
week (you know who you are and I know that several of you have
already subscribed to this newsletter!), welcome and enjoy - you
too are now one step ahead of your competition :-)
About the author:
Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since
1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two
weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit:
http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html
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